Following the Mississippi South of Here

It was a jam-packed week.

Meryl and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday,
we did dinner out and had a nice walk around the mill ruins.

I did tons of tattooing even though I had two sleeve cancellations.
I filled the time with mostly little things.
Flowers and words were the big players this week.




Today, Ryan and Rebecca picked us up, and we headed down to Red Wing,
an historic town famous for shoes and stoneware.
We did some MANtiquing, of course.
We also did some dangerous archaeological digging (Meryl got injured) in this area where the rejected pottery ended up. We found ceramic pieces, antique bricks, a crazy red layered rock, and deer teeth.
Later on, while hiking, we traded a discarded bubble maker to some kid for the scoop on this really long cave.
Ryan and I have decided that we need some caving gear, or at least flashlights, on us at all times from now on. It's hard to be professional explorers when we use cell phones and cameras to light the way.

Ryan picking up garbage and making pretty bubbles


The cave kept going and going.


My silhouette from inside the cave, no flash


A different (man-made) cave entrance on a different mountain, but we didn't enter this one.


After all that, we came home, grilled up some tofu, mushrooms, and corn, had a fire, and enjoyed the late May evening.


This week is going to be at least as busy, if not more so.

I pick up the surgically removed tattooed skin on Wednesday.
I bought Krowtann 2000 for the ordeal, and will obviously post photos of the entire process.
Meryl bought me a shadow box (as an anniversary gift, how dope is that?!) for it to be displayed in.

Adam from Queens arrives Thursday. He's been to MN 4 times (or more) so far in 2009 alone, so anyone else competing for "Most Visits" will have to aim for a Silver Medal.
He's also winning for "Most Postcards", and the slightly less sought after "Shamira's Favorite Person Award".

Casey has a going away party Friday night at Java J's, and then leaves MPLS on Saturday for CT before her train ride to LA. Come by and wish her luck on her bike trip.

Book topped houses are for the birds.

8 hours of Art-a-Whirl today!
I did two hours last night as well, then caught Dark, Dark, Dark's show over in Dinkytown.
I think that's 4 shows of theirs in 2 weeks I've seen.

As for my work,
here's some better photos of the finishes pieces:






The day went pretty well.
It consisted of a lot of question answering,
and small-talk making,
and wondering if I shouldn't have been at work instead.

But I did get to see lots of super hot artwork done by tons of different artists all in one building.
And Ryan and I did go exploring underneath the Northrup King building in some weird grain tunnels or something.





Armed with only a cell phone and a camera flash to light our way, we successfully avoided tons of people shocked by the fact that someone might use books for the roof of the birdhouses.
The antlers no one questioned.
At all.
But those were mostly referred to as "horns".

Also, if you ever do Art-a-Whirl, go armed with a credit card machine.
Really.

We met some interesting people,
bloggers and birders and borderline nutballs.

Some of the artists were pretty dope.
Kristen Arden does some serious metalwork,
like this antler piece.

There was letterpressed art,
paint, sculpture, motorized metal (that was awesome),
and of course plenty of not so awesome things.

It's going on again tomorrow from 12-5,
but I won't be there for the first part of the day.
Meryl and I have tickets to the Guthrie,
our Christmas present from her mom.
We've heard some whisperings about this play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures, and we're excited.

Thanks to everyone who's come by and said hello so far, I really do appreciate it.
Hope if you're in Minneapolis, you're enjoying all of the commotion this weekend.